I have both Japanese and US citizenship at the moment (I am 20 years old). I understand that Japan prioritizies people with Big 7 nationality. I was planning on choosing Japanese nationality and just keeping my US citizenship by declaring to endeavor to get rid of it but not getting rid of it. Is it possible to get a job as a foreign English teacher if I have Japanese citizenship? Would it be possible to simply tell them that I am also a US citizen with no repercussions or would I have to pretend that I am getting rid of my US citizenship and would this put me at a disadvantage because I don’t have Big 7 citizenship?
7 comments
The jobs where they care about your nationality are the garbage tier entertainment jobs. Your Japanese citizenship is more valuable than your US citizenship if you want to live and work in Japan. You’ll have many more doors open to you, especially if you a fluent in Japanese.
What kind of teaching are you thinking of?
If you’re Japanese and fluent in the language, absolutely don’t do shitty eikaiwa/ALT work. You can do anything.
Don’t bother. You can do anything you want. Get a real job.
I would reconsider being a “English teacher” unless you plan on going to university in Japan to get your teaching license. Eikaiwa and ALT work are designed to be gap year jobs and not careers.
You won’t be able to get on the JET program while holding a japanese passport but other dispatch companies and eikaiwa will gladly take you aslong as you have fluent English. Having japanese citizenship means they don’t have to apply for a visa for you, meaning less work for them.
It doesn’t prioritize people from the group of 7. It’s quite difficult for people from Germany and France to become teachers here. They prioritize the 5 countries passports. US, Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand.
Edit: to answer your question, you won’t be able to do JET with Japanese citizenship, but you could look into finding direct hire work. Friend in Osaka has dual citizenship and works as a direct hire. Don’t mess around with Eikaiwa work.
I’m in a similar situation as you! From what I’ve heard, it’s probably be better to work as a Japanese citizen. Whatever company you end up working for won’t have to worry about sponsoring a visa too.
You are correct about being able to keep both nationalities for life by choosing the Japanese nationality and making an “endeavor” to renounce your other citizenship. (note that if you later on take a different nationality, you will automatically be stripped of your Japanese one)
However, you don’t have a choice about which passport to use when entering Japan. You must use your Japanese passport. This is just a standard thing that dual nationals have to do no matter the country.
When entering and exiting country A you must use passport A, when entering and exiting country B you must use passport B. When entering and exiting country C, you can use whichever passport is most beneficial to you. This applies to basically any country, so no, you can’t apply for work in Japan as a US citizen